Men's Tennis Finishes Ninth at ECACs

The men’s tennis team met expectations this weekend at the ECAC Men’s Tennis Invitational. It just didn’t exceed them. Ninth-seeded Cornell came in exactly the place it was supposed to: ninth. The Red fell to Dartmouth on Friday, but prevailed against St. Joseph’s on Saturday and Boston College on Sunday.
“It would have been nice to do a little better,” said coach Barry Schoonmaker. “But at least we didn’t go down.”
The team went into the weekend feeling good about its chances, but was disappointed after falling eight-seeded Dartmouth on the first day of play, 5-2. Senior Rory Heggie and junior Josh Goldstein won their singles matches with scores of 7-6, 6-1 and 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 respectively, to give Cornell its two points of the match. Heggie and Goldstein then teamed up to topple Dartmouth’s Jeff Schechtman and Daniel Freeman, 8-6. Heggie and Goldstein did not drop a match all tournament, combining for six singles wins and three doubles wins.
“Those two did outstanding for the team,” Schoonmaker said.
“I felt pretty good,” Heggie said. “I competed well but I didn’t play my best tennis. I got the job done which is what matters.”
The loss to Dartmouth was especially hard to swallow because the Red felt like the match was its to lose.
“We were all disappointed about losing that match, but we were happy that we were able to rebound for our next two matches,” said freshman Jeremy Feldman. “We learned that we have to respect every team and not take them for granted. We expected to go right through Dartmouth.”
Feldman looked confident in the third tournament of his collegiate career.
“I’m pleased with my transition from junior tennis to college tennis,” Feldman said. “It’s different because every guy you play is a solid player and everyone’s got college experience under their belt. Dartmouth was my first Ivy League match so I was pretty nervous. But I think I played better as the weekend went on.”
He defeated St. Joseph’s Matt Prusack on Saturday, 6-2, 6-2. He then then followed up with another decisive win over Boston College’s Adam Davidson, 6-1, 6-2. Feldman also teamed with sophomore Jonathan Fife for two doubles wins.
The Red showed its resolve by bouncing back from the frustrating loss to Dartmouth to sweep away No. 16 seed St. Joseph’s and No. 12 seed Boston College, both with convincing scores of 7-0.
“It was definitely a letdown losing to Dartmouth in the first round, but we dominated the rest of the way,” Heggie said. “We just came back with good attitudes.”
The team will hope to take those good attitudes into its next tournament, along with some more practice in closing out matches.
“Both of the doubles that we lost we were up a break or two,” Heggie said. “They slipped out of our hands.”
“One of the main things we’ll focus on in practice is not going into cruise control during our matches,” Feldman said. “Not letting up, not letting guys back into matches.”
Despite the discouraging loss to Dartmouth, Schoonmaker was pleased with the overall progress the team made.
“A lot of our young guys got playing time and experience,” Schoonmaker said. “Which is exactly what they need.”